Brookfield has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Brookfield has 182 jobs for 906 working residents. Jobs and income earn Brookfield C−; getting around on foot earns it D. Only 6% work in Brookfield itself; outside it, New Hartford draws the most (8%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Brookfield
Brookfield is a place people come home to
There are 182 jobs based in Brookfield, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Brookfield has about 1,500 people in it, 32% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
A longer commute than the towns next door
Brookfield averages 36 minutes each way, more than any bordering town (18 to 32 minutes). Next door ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 906 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Brookfield
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Brookfield is better than 15% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Brookfield’s grade up ($69,205, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (7.1%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Brookfield could be anywhere from D to C+.
Who commutes out of Brookfield, and who commutes in
On a workday 855 residents head out to work, 51 work right here, and 131 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Brookfield on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where Brookfield goes to work
Where Brookfield clocks in
8% of workers
7% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
What Brookfield’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brookfield, 2013 → 2023: 125 → 182. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Brookfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 36 minutes each way for Brookfield’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brookfield workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 856 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across New York: 57% drive alone, 25% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Where in the region Brookfield works
About 22% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Brookfield, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brookfield is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 3.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 967 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.3% of Brookfield households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brookfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
Brookfield places 4,056th of 5,102 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Atlantic Beach NY | 1,723 | $166K | 1.8% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| 8 | Village of the Branch NY | 1,764 | $174K | 1.5% | 3.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 9 | Old Brookville NY | 2,098 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,054 | Braham MN | 1,789 | $59K | 16.1% | 5.0% | 6% | C− |
| 4,055 | Deerfield Township MI | 1,882 | $58K | 14.1% | 3.3% | 1% | C− |
| 4,056 | Brookfield NY | 2,235 | $69K | 16.6% | 7.1% | 6% | C− |
| 4,057 | Rockville IN | 2,597 | $57K | 20.4% | 5.0% | 15% | C− |
| 4,058 | Bessemer MI | 1,787 | $54K | 12.9% | 4.9% | 23% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Brookfield, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
15% of Brookfield works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Brookfield workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brookfield | – | C− | D | 36 min | $69,205 |
| Plainfield | under 4% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Unadilla Forks | under 4% | — | — | 26 min | — |
| Edmeston | 4% | D | C | 25 min | $67,639 |
| Columbus | under 4% | — | — | 32 min | — |
| Hamilton | 6% | B− | A− | 18 min | $75,398 |
| Madison | under 4% | B | B− | 22 min | $76,895 |
| Sangerfield | 5% | B+ | B+ | 24 min | $91,563 |
| Bridgewater | under 4% | D | D | 23 min | $44,850 |
Same-state neighbors only. Plainfield: not graded. Unadilla Forks: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Columbus: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Hamilton. Darker towns draw more of Brookfield’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Brookfield: questions
What is the median household income in Brookfield?
$69,205 (±$8,688) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brookfield?
16.6%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brookfield?
36 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brookfield work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New Hartford (8%, 18 mi), Utica (7%, 21 mi), Hamilton (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brookfield walkable?
Brookfield is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 3.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brookfield without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brookfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brookfield
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.